Ask a Brafton employee today, and you’ll get mixed answers: Shortbread biscuits from someone’s recent trip to Scotland (they went fast), apples from the latest fruit order, a million Brafton-branded mugs.

Those mugs! They appeared last year, and now they’re ubiquitous. Look around the various departments, and you’ll see one on most desks. Take a peek in the kitchen, and you’ll see them lined up, ready to be used – and reused.

Brafton has been making the green office push for a while, and we’ve come a long way. We’re not done yet, and have some future initiatives up our collective sleeves, but check out what we’ve already accomplished in both our Boston and Chicago offices:

Filtered water systems in place of bottles.

Reusable mugs and utensils, and a growing stockpile of other non-disposable supplies.

The Chicago folks took the extra step of changing out their fluorescent bulbs for LEDs. Kudos, Chicago! We’re looking at ways to reduce our energy impact in Boston, but you’ve got us beat there.

It’s not all in the kitchen (or the lights), of course. Our several work-from-home staff members cut down on our office space needs, reducing our heating, cooling and commuting impacts.

You’re probably guessing that I’m proud of our growing commitment to creating a greener workplace here at Brafton. You’re right (and not just because I kick-started the effort in Boston… kudos, Jeremy). We’ve always been nearly paper-free in our operations, so every additional step we take moves us closer to a minimal carbon footprint.

So keep it up Chicago. We’ve been talking about planet-minded volunteer events in Boston … up goes the ante!

Jeremy Corb

Jeremy is the Brafton Director of People Operations. He's a Mainer through-and through but calls Boston home now, including its crazy drivers and "winters." When he's not torturing his cats with his guitar playing, he's whipping up a vegetarian feast.